Tom Cruise is an absolute madman. There's no better way of putting it. Oftentimes, I'm sincerely concerned about his mental well being with how wild he's willing to take his stunts. Usually, they pay people to do that crazy stuff for you. But Tom lives for these moments, a real commitment to the craft that I've grown to admire over the years. However, even he might regret his latest stunt.
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Recently, Cruise spoke with Empire Magazine ahead of the release for his upcoming film Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning. There, he discusses one particularly gnarly stunt where he's underwater, exploring the wreckage of a ship. However, Tom can only wear the special suit for the scene ten minutes at a time before he's risking his mortality. "I'm breathing in my own carbon dioxide," Cruise reveals. "It builds up in the body and affects the muscles. You have to overcome all of that while you're doing it, and be present."
Tom Cruise Breathes In His Own Carbon Dioxide for The Love of Mission: Impossible
The director of the film, Christopher McQuarrie, breaks down in further detail just how intricate and intense the stunt is for Cruise. "He's in a rotating structure filled with debris, and you had to find a way to make that environment look as chaotic and unhinged as humanly possible," McQuarrie explains. "But in a way that you could repeat, and that Tom could navigate, and survive."
This comes on the heels of a separate conversation, where Tom talks about how he would pass out during the airplane stunts. Once again, it's a matter of not getting any oxygen and he would be knocked out. "When you stick your face out [of an airplane], going over 120 to 130 miles an hour, you're not getting oxygen," Cruise explains. So I had to train myself how to breathe. There were times I would pass out physically; I was unable to get back into the cockpit."
